USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > Altoona > History of the city of Altoona and Blair County : including sketches of the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. > Part 14
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
we will enter the machine shops and learn about the birth, life and death of a railroad locomotive. As we pass over Twelfth street bridge that arches the main line, some idea of the extent of the shops is gathered, though the actual fact that the area of the yard is 24.33 acres is hardly patent. The area of the first floor of the shops is 6.409 acres, and of the second floor is .933. There are also in this yard three round houses covering an area of nearly three and one- fourth acres ! Where everything is usually so sombre, overlaid as a machine shop must naturally be with coaldust, it is indeed a happy thought to notice here and there in the grounds, during the spring, summer and fall months, flower beds filled with the gorgeous bloom of scarlet geraniums and other brightly-dressed plants. It indicates, also, a softer side to the life of these grimy men; it argues well for the liberality of the employers. And it must be mainly this that has induced such a vital spirit of cleanliness all through the yard. Pass- ing by one of these beds, we enter the
BLACKSMITH SHOP,
where the preliminary process of engine making begins-the heavy forging of the locomotive frames and the making of a great many forgings by means of dies. Just here we will mention that, in noting the various shops in which a locomotive is made, only such points as are remarkable and such processes as are novel will be dwelt upon. This shop has a floor area of 23,280 feet, and contains twenty-five double briek forges and seven steam hammers, the two largest of which are of 5,000 pounds. Heavier pieces than those formed by the dies referred to are fashioned under the hammer on cast iron blocks and shaped to the desired form. The work turned out of these dies, which is always at one heat, include ends of valve rods, links, etc. After the frame is begun and begins to take recognizable shape, the frame passes out, passing by a large shearing machine cap- able of cutting the heaviest sections of steel rails as if they were pa- per, and into
THE MACHINE SHOP,
a building 426 feet long, where it is laid first on a planer and then on a slotting machine. This machine takes the right and left of a frame at the same time. Another noticeable machine in this shop is a ver- tical milling machine, in which the table revolves and moves at right angles. Almost any shape can be finished on this machine at one op- eration. A horizontal milling machine near by saves many hours in
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
C. A. DIMOND & CO.,
DEALER IN ALL KINDS OF
COAL, KINDLING WOOD.
AND A GOOD QUALITY OF
Mountain Building Stone.
BRICK, SAND, LIME & HAIR. FLOUR, FEED, ETC.
Our rule is to sell the best goods at the lowest prices, and extend courteous treat- ment to all.
9th Avenue, between 17th and 18th Streets, ALTOONA, PA.
M. G. LINGENFELTER,
- DEALER IN -
GROCERIES, FLOUR, FEED, VEGETABLES IN SEASON, Canned Fruits, Provisions of all kinds, Notions, Etc.
Corner 14th Street and 12th Avenue, ALTOONA, PA.
RUDISILL BROTHERS, WATCHMAKERS&JEWELERS 1310 Eleventh Avenue, Altoona, Pa.
Sole agents for the ROCKFORD RAILROAD WATCH ; also, sole agents for the celebrated Lemare's Rock Crystal Spectacles. Particular attention given to repairing fine watches and jewelry.
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HISTORY. OF. ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
surfacing accurately all kinds of work, such as steam chest joints, the machine traveling all around the object. Catching your eye in a cor- ner of this room is a small enclosure slatted off. It is the tool and standard sample shop. And here, again, you notice how thoroughly every part of this great system has been thought out. All gauges, templates, etc., are furnished on standard measurements. No work- man is allowed to set a pair of callipers for himself ; they are made rigid. The motive of this is at once obvious. It insures against er- ror .; error that the most skilled labor could not but commit, for no man can repeat absolutely acenrately any delicate mechanical opera- tion ; it allows the employment of men less highly skilled than used to be the case in fine work, and it insures also absolute interchangea- bility of parts in engines of the same class. All parts, tools, etc., are numbered in a printed catalogue, and everything is requisitioned from such catalogue. The tools themselves are in the care of men who furnish a certain number of the commoner tools to each me- chanie, and when he brings a broken one it is repaired here, saving in this way both the time and confusion that usually is noted at the forge. For other than common tools, obtained from the storeroom, each workman is furnished with a brass check upon which is his num- ber. He takes out a tool, and his number is hung in its stead. The planing machines in this shop are arranged in pairs, so that two of them can be operated by one man. It is the system also to place as large a number of similar pieces at one operation as possible, and this principle rules through all the shops. It is also noticeable here that in turning up cast iron, chilled cast iron tools are used instead of steel, which would dull more easily.
THE VISE SHOP.
Passing into the vise shop, an interesting machine is finishing the coupling rods on a grindstone with an emery wheel, a machine that saves a great deal in "trueing up" of old guides formerly done on a planer. By this means only the smallest amount of metal is removed and time saved. The emery wheel has entirely replaced the file for such work. But there is plenty of other work that the wheels cannot "smooth up," and which gives employment to about fifty men. As you cross the yard to where the cylinders are being bored you notice a pile of steel tires being heated so as to be placed upon the driving wheels, it having been found that the contraction of the metal is suf- ficient to keep them always in place. The cylinders are bored two at a time. While all this has been going on, over in the boiler shop the
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
boiler of our locomotive is in process of construction from entirely steel plates, iron having been long ago discarded.
THE BOILER SHOP
is divided into the erecting, the flanging and the tank departments, this last named including the manufacture of tender and engine tanks, ash pans, water troughs for track tanks, etc. All of these are also made of steel, sheet-iron having been abandoned. In the flanging de- partment are three flanging forges on Nixon's patent, by which any desired form can be given to the fire. This obviates all danger of straining and cracking, which was inseparable from the old method. In the erecting room of the boiler shop are placed the punches, bend- ing rolls and shears required, as well as a large steel riveting ma- chine, which rivets each bolt in two blows. To handle the work there are here two ten-ton jib cranes and the Stowe flexible shaft. Simul- taneously with the preparation of the boiler for our locomotive, over in
THE FOUNDRY
all sorts of castings for its construction are in progress. This foun- dry you find is 250 feet long and 100 feet wide, with thirty-four feet and ten inches to the roof ties. The roof is surmounted by a venti- lator 213 feet long and twenty-eight feet nine inches span. About thirty-five tons of iron a day are consumed in the castings, which are made mainly on the snap flask and match card systems. The mould, for cylinders, as well as many small things, is made of sharp sand mixed with flour and molasses, covered with black lead and baked in huge ovens. The moulding machines are marvels of ingenuity, parts of the pattern moving before the whole of it, thus preserving the sharp edges. A second wing of the main foundry contains the brass foundry, which has eighteen melting furnaces ranged round a chim- ney stack seventy feet high. Phosphor-bronze is used for all journal bearings made here. Zines cast in chilled moulds are manufactured for use in electric batteries, and the whole foundry has an admirable ventilation. From the foundry you go to
TIIE FIRST ERECTING SIIOP,
where the frames and the boiler of our locomotive are fitted together and made one. The various parts are bolted and riveted here, and then the locomotive, now approaching form, is run out upon a trans- fer table by means of a windlass, and carried along to the door of
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
THE SECOND ERECTING SHOP.
This shop is one of the most complete and best arranged in the col- lection. It is 350x57 feet, and there are three lines of rails running the full length of it. There is ample room for seven engines on each track, and, in cases of emergency, nine. For facility in handling the work there are two overhead traveling cranes, each of twenty-five tons capacity. They run upon rails placed along each side of the building, at a sufficient height above the ground, and fifty-nine feet apart. Each crane consists of two plate-iron girders, weighing to- gether eighteen tons, and carrying at their ends the frame and wheels with which they run upon the rails. Upon rails laid upon these girders traveling crabs run to and fro. The cranes are driven by a cotton rope, traveling at the rate of 5,074 feet per minute, and the power is applied by the friction of this running rope upon grooved wheels, on the shaft of which are worms working into worm wheels, and thence to reducing gear. The crane travels longitudinally at the rate of forty-eight feet a minute, carrying the heaviest locomotive as if it were a ginger snap at the end of a string ; the crabs travel thirty feet a minute. There are two hoisting speeds-the quick, eight feet one inch a minute, the slow, eighteen inches in the same time. Be- low the door of this shop, on each side of the centre track, are deep paved pits extending the whole length of the building, in which are stored the machinery or other parts of engines, the boilers of which are sent for repair. Wheels five feet six inches in diameter can be stored in these pits. Within the pits a system of pipes is laid in con- neetion with a Worthington pressure and force pump and with two steam boilers. This arrangement is employed for testing the boilers by hydraulie pressure before they leave the shop, the test rising to one hundred and fifty pounds per square inch, and also for testing by steam at one hundred and twenty-five pounds per square inch. This does away with all the old annoying system of smoky fires and. un- satisfactory tests, and is a big step forward. Our engine is thus ready, as far as metal work is concerned. She is almost complete, and has answered in construction every test.
THIE PAINT SHOP.
It is now sent to the paint shop, 345x32 feet, and here it must re- main twelve days according to schedule. Painting iron is always a slow process; it requires so much careful preparing with white lead. The paints used in decoration have all been tested as to their wear- ing qualities, and these, chemical analyses have demonstrated how
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY,
BIG EXCITEMENT.
BOSS STORE STILL AHEAD. Best Goods at Popular Prices.
On our first and second floors will be found a large and complete stoek of such goods as are kept in a First-class Dry Goods, Notion and Fancy Goods Store, at prices as low, and oftentimes lower than any other store in Blair county. A trial purchase will convince you of our bargains.
DRY GOODS, DRESS GOODS,
SILKS, SATINS, VELVETS,
Beaver Cloths, Waterproofs, Cashmeres, Calicoes, Flannels, Muslins, &c.
FULL LINE OF KID GLOVES -- ALL SHADES. BLANKETS AND HAPS.
AN ESPECIALLY LARGE STOCK OF
CARPETS AND OIL CLOTHS,
WINDOW SHADES AND FIXTURES,
Always on hand and sold at the very lowest prices. Also, Agent for the "GREAT PEARL," and " BOSS " SHIRTS, and BUTTERICK'S PATTERNS.
J. M. BOWMAN,
(SUCCESSOR TO BOWMAN & MORROW,)
11th Avenue and 12th Street, Altoona, Pa.
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
they shall be mixed. When finished the tender is coated just as smoothly as any Japanese lacquer, and shines like a looking-glass. The lettering and striping have all been done in accord with speci- fication, and the locomotive is taken to the round house, where the few remaining connections are made, and it stands completely born. Though it possesses no brass bands and ornamental metal work, the tender and wheels are painted a mixture of Brunswick green and black, but so dark that the green can only be seen in certain lights -still it is a very handsome locomotive. The connections necessary are made in the round house, by a trial engineer, who then takes it out for a preliminary spin up the mountain. This satisfactory, it goes into service, and its real life begins.
LIFE AND SERVICES OF LOCOMOTIVES.
On a grand average the life of a locomotive may be set down as fourteen or fifteen years, with varying results as to mileage. The earliest collated statistics as to the life of engines were made with some Baldwin locomotives built during the war, when both good ma- terial and good men were practically unattainable. These give vary- ing results of from two to six years, and up to 175,000 miles. Such a record is nothing, nowadays. On the Pennsylvania Railroad there are a couple of engines in active service that have reached the unpre- cedented record of over 250,000 miles, without receiving other than round house repairs. These are the standard engines used on the road. Supposing that the engine we have seen built to have been one of these, it will make its annual 30,000 miles in the grand total of 6,680,122 miles run by all engines. (This was in 1878.) Per- haps it will run more-one engine, in 1878, on a passenger train, made 75,570 miles-perhaps less, as circumstances decide. At all events, the railroad will get out of the engine all it is worth. For an engine, in England, the best practice does not exceed 18,000 miles ; but experience shows the American engine is good for much more.
CLASS "K" ENGINES.
A new class of engines (K) has been adopted by the company, ten of which have recently been ordered to be built at these shops. One is now upon the road and has, after a number of test trials, proven satisfactory in every respect. It weighs 90,200 pounds, (about 45 tons) with driving wheels, 68 inches in diameter and 19x24 inch cylinders. The others are to be of corresponding weight and power. This class of locomotives is capable of hauling seven or more cars upon
12
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
the various grades of 25 feet per mile, while with ordinary engines five cars is a sufficient load. Class K locomotives are built with a view to combine rapid transit with perfect safety.
RECORD OF MOVEMENTS AND CONDITION OF ENGINES.
Our engine, once in service, is by no means lost sight of. Its movements are as thoroughly noted as are those of an ocean streamer. In Mr. Ely's office, in this city, there is an immense board covered with little pins, upon which hang small round colored dises, from the under part of which has been ent a small portion. These pegs and dises are numbered from 1 to 1,250. Each number corresponds with an engine. On one part of the board the pegs are numbered consecutively. Looking at this part for any particular engine that may be desired, on the dise will be found " Ptgh," "N. Y," or "P," ete. This refers you to the division where the engine is Looking to that division on the board, and finding the number of the engine, another little dise, by means of its color, will tell you just what con- dition the engine is in. If the dise is pure white the engine is in perfect order. If the dise is bordered by a red line the engine needs only such slight repairs as may be made withont withdrawing it from the service. If the disc is covered one-half with red, repair- are re- quired of a very slight nature, but for which the engine must proceed to the shop. If the entire dise is pale gray, repairs of a more import- ant character are needed, though still deemed slight. A disc entirely blue denotes a machine that needs very substantial repairs. One-half black and half white indicates the machine is being built over. A dise all black denotes an engine unfit, save to be cut up or soldl. This record is changed every week, and is so complete as to enable any one to see at a glance just the condition of the motive power. Repairs are never undertaken if they will cost over $3,000. For that a new standard boiler can be built, and, unless an engine is of the standard pattern, she is never built over, for the company does not wish to perpetuate odd engines, and to pay more than $3,000 would not be so economical as to pay interest on the value of a new ma- chine. Here, again, true economy steps in to change the practice of blind conservatism.
An engine on the road is always very carefully used. After our locomotive is placed in the hands of an engineer it is cared for with the watchfulness of a parent's affection. An accurate record of its performances is made and compared with that of other engines. As freight is paid for per ton per mile, so the cost of an engine is
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
reckoned. The amount of coal consumed per ear per engine mile being calculated, it is easy to see, by dividing this by the tonnage, just how much coal it takes to move a ton of freight one engine mile. And the engine that does this most successfully is the cheapest and best.
Finally, after having traveled many thousands of miles, having speedily and safely hauled millions of human beings, our locomotive is sent to the shop condemned. It is ignominiously bundled off into a corner to stand with a lot of others until cut up or sold. Its im- mediate neighbors may be like itself, worn out ; perhaps "died in the harness." The little dise that records in the superintendent's of- fiec its physical condition has turned to black. There is no hope. To-morrow a committee of inspection will condemn it to be cut to pieces. Into the furnace the parts will go, to emerge, like the mill where old men were ground out into new, rejuvenated, ready to take a place in some new monster with steel heart and transmigrated soul. And so the story will be told again ; the theory of the survival of the fittest always having prominence; until in years to come perfection will be reached, or the hurrying mortal shall travel in some other fashion, looking down with strong contempt on what are the marvels of to-day.
[In the Boston (Mass. ) Herald, of August 2, 1879, was published an able and elaborate article descriptive of the motive power shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and although we had made ourselves fa- miliar with their extent and operations we have interwoven a portion of the Herald's description with our own. ]
CAR DEPARTMENT, OR "LOWER" SHOPS.
A correct knowledge of the sciences of mechanies and natural phil- osophy, as well as a practical and experimental application of the principles of these sciences are essential to one who would wish to act as foreman of a machine shop. Were he deficient in such knowl- edge we cannot see how he could give intelligent directions to the men in his employ, for the principles of these sciences underlie all mechanical operations. True, with but little instruction, a man may learn how to control the operations of a machine, and thus make like machines without the knowledge we speak of, upon the same principle that a parrot may learn how to talk. He is no machinist, in the full acceptation of the term, unless he be in full possession of the knowledge referred to. To this knowledge must be added a con- siderable admixture of inventive genius, for we never yet saw a good
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
E. M. KENNEDY & CO., - DEALERS IN -
GROCERIES, FLOUR, FEED,
PROVISIONS, ETC.
FOURTH STREET and CHESTNUT AVENUE, (Logantown,) ALTOONA.
ALTOONA LAUNDRY, Misses SUTTON, BROTHERS & McMULLEN, Prop'rs. Cor. 11th Avenue and 16th Street, Altoona, Pa. ALL KINDS OF LAUNDRY WORK, For Gentlemen and Ladies, promptly attended to in the best manner and at the LOWEST PRICES.
JOHN KINSEL,
Carpet Manufacturer,
No. 804 Chestnut Avenue,
Between Eighth and Ninth Streets, ALTOONA, PA.
R. B. MAHAFFEY,
PUBLISHER OF
SHEET MUSIC AND MUSIC BOOKS,
And Dealer in Musical Merchandise Generally.
Yon cannot afford to be without the " MUSICAL ADVOCATE," only 10 cents a unmber. Full of local musical notes, and each number contains a piece of music worth from 30 10 40 cents. Get a copy at the first of each month.
12014 EIGHTH AVENUE, ALTOONA. PA.
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
mechanic in any branch of industry whose brain was not permeated with or transversed by a vein of ingenuity, originality, eccentricity, genius, or whatever else you may call it.
THE MACHINE SHOP.
In the lower shop are sixty machines of different kinds, all in use in the manufacture of the new machinery from time to time required by the other "lower " shops, as they are generally called, and in keep- ing the machinery already there in good working condition. In ad- dition to this all the iron work used in the construction of passenger and freight cars (not locomotives-they are built and repaired at the machine shop of the motive power department) is dressed, properly prepared or finished here; the wheels are bored, axles turned, screws cut, holes drilled, etc., etc. Seventy men are employed, about as many as can work to advantage. The room is only 135x70 feet. Small as it is, considering the amount of space occupied by the ma- chines and to allow workmen proper elbow room, there have been as high as eighty-three at work at the same time.
Any one knows, or ought to know, that a description of each of the sixty machines would fill a large volume. Even the simple men- tion of the names, coupled with laconic notices, would occupy too much space for the present article. We will mention, however, five boring mills or machines for boring holes in the centre of car wheels, or rather enlarging the holes that are already in, through which the ends of axles pass, capable of "doing" 250 wheels per day-fifty each. The "nut tapper " cuts the spiral threads inside of nuts at the rate of 2,600 pounds per day Of course these nuts vary in size to correspond with the size of the serews out on bolts, whatever size that may be. There are standard sizes of both nuts and screw bolts. We use the term "screw bolt " to distinguish it from all other bolts. There are six nut-tappers and eleven bolt cutters. As nuts and serew bolts are counterparts of each other, and as the nuts are tapped in larger proportion than the screws are cut in bolts, more machines are required for executing the latter work than the former. Hence the proportion of the machines is six to eleven-that is, six nut-tappers keep eleven bolt cutters in operation to the best advantage. There are twelve drilling machines which move with the regularity of clock work. We might as well have said that a clock works with the reg- ularity of a drilling machine, for what is a clock but a machine? But let this go.
The original of all or nearly all the machines here employed were
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
PASSENGER CAR.
OCEAN
LAUDSPRACH SC
PARLOR CAR.
11.0
OHIO
LAUDERSACH CO
SLEEPING CAR.
20
PENNSYLVANIA
RAIL ROAD
U. S. POSTAL CAR.
93
PENNSYLY
RR BAGGAGE
BAGGAGE CAR.
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HISTORY OF ALTOONA AND BLAIR COUNTY.
obtained from Messrs. William Sellers & Co., and Messrs. William B. Bement & Son, of Philadelphia, in whom, whoever may have been the inventors or patentees, was vested the right to manufacture and sell; and, in the Pennsylvania Railroad company, as we under- stand it, is now vested the same "right, title and interest."
Taking off and putting on wheels on axles, by hydrostatic pres- sure, is an interesting operation. From thirty to eighty tons pres- sure is brought to bear in removing wheels from their axles, and from twenty to forty tons in putting them on. Removing the burnt, warped and twisted wheels from burnt, warped and twisted axles which were in the fire at Pittsburg a few years ago, was a big job. We were shown wheels and axles which were absolutely fused or melted together at the place they were conjoined-but the powerful pressure applied released the one from the other.
Freight car wheels and axles are made of iron, but the axles for passenger ears are constructed of steel, brought from the steel works at Meadville, Penn'a; the Forge and Iron works of Pittsburg, and from various other sources of supply.
Mr. James Sharp has acted as foreman for over nine years, or since the lower shops were built. Indeed it was under his supervis- ion that the necessary machinery for all the lower shops was ordered and put in position. Long before this he was employed by the com- pany in the motive power department.
PASSENGER CAR SHOP.
About one hundred hands are at present employed-the highest number at any one time having been one hundred and thirty-seven. This was during the Centennial year, at which time one hundred pas- senger ears were built to meet the exigencies of the extensive travel on the road. The force is employed on eight or ten ears at one and the same time.
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